Recalling lived experiences of migration can bring about a range of emotions, memories, and aspirations. But what about the children of those who migrate who may have no lived experience or memory of migrating themselves yet bear the burden of retelling stories and experiences? Is it possible to retell experiences that may feel strange and alien to you but are often assumed as ‘known’ due to racialised aspects of your identity? As migration scholars continue to ask questions around often intangible concepts such as home, belonging, and community, how can we find ways to untangle ideas of lived and ‘inherited’ experiences of migration to support research into these concepts?
In this blog I will share first-hand experience of using the walking interview as a method to explore some of these ideas. I will unpack what is involved with the method in terms of the planning and the doing, alongside empirical reflections from a participant’s walking interview to illustrate the sensory richness of experiences that can be garnered from using this method.
Walking conversations: what did they involve?
A key part of my research entitled ‘Sensing Wales: conflicting identities and belonging of racialised young women in Wales’ is to explore a sense of self and identity around pressures and, what James Baldwin terms the ‘burden of representation’ when thinking about experiences of migration. Migration may not be a central part of how they see themselves in the world, but this is often in tension with how others may construct their racialised identities. So, as part of these questions I designed my research methodology with a participant-led approach in mind to try to avoid reinforcing stereotypes and assumptions, using the walking (go-along) interview.
Ahead of the walk each participant would put together an ‘about me’ mind map based on how they see themselves. The idea of the interviews was to have a ‘walking conversation’ with young, racialised women in Swansea, upon the backdrop of meandering between meaningful places. They chose the places according to prompts given ahead of the walk (see figure 1).
Figure 1 Prompts for participants to choose meaningful places
Walking interviews can be a great way to gain more insight into the sensory and embodied experiences, or as John Wylie describes, the ‘shifting mood, tenor, colour or intensity of places and situations’ (Wylie, 2005: 236)[1]. The walk would include finding out more about how they view themselves, how they want to be seen by others, as well as places associated with meaningful experiences which potentially supported or challenge these ideas about their sense of self. The participants would also be encouraged to take a photo of each place from their perspective, annotating the images afterwards (see figure 2).
Figure 2 Snapshots of meaningful places, taken by participants
The multi modal approach to these walks allowed the participant to have space to explore multiple ways of explaining ideas and concepts. It also provided opportunities for them to lead conversations to explore topics such as ancestral connections to different places through memories, rather than being expected to answer direct questions about specific countries and perspectives on migration. An example of the depth and richness of topics explored will be presented below through one place chosen by a participant as a place that ‘reminds me of my childhood’.
Three generations in one place: memory, childhood, and stretched connections to Iraq
Moving through and being present in different places allowed sensory descriptions relating to ideas of self, identity, and belonging for these young women. As some of these ideas can be difficult to articulate or bring into words, the way of ‘naming’ aspects in terms of what they see, hear, smell etc. highlighted the gaps and missing things from these descriptions for these participants. For example, Farah shared a place that reminds her of her childhood, which provided the setting for three generations (her great-grandmother, grandmother, and sister) meeting up for a meal (see figure 3).
Figure 3 Farah's[2] meaningful place that reminds her of her childhood
As she describes the encounter as unremarkable in many ways, she also describes the memory of it being significant since her great-grandmother passed away.
“Every time I pass that building its this nice memory. And again, I only appreciate it now. It’s one of those things that over time, whenever you lose somebody, memories that you never really think about or places you’ve been to, they become more important. It’s like a nice little memory now, and every time I like, say to my own grandma “remember this place”, she gets excited now. She remembers with her own mother, sitting at the restaurant with us, me and Mariyah.”
The place stimulates emotions that are beyond the singular experience and its meaning at the time, and in retrospect. She continued to reflect on the ideas of comfort and belonging, thinking about how migration can change plans and trajectories in unexpected ways. As we walked away from the Grape and Olive, she pointed out an area in the distance, a cemetery, which is her great-grandmother’s final resting place:
“It’s one of those things that with my great-grandmother, she lived in Iraq, and she even said to my own mother, like, she feels more relaxed in Wales. And it's quite strange in a way, when you’re born in one place, you’d never think that your resting place would be a place on the other side of the world.”
During her walk she had described the idea of migrating as quite distant from her own childhood and experiences living in Wales. Leaving a country due to circumstances outside of your control was something that she saw as necessary but very removed from her own life, even though her family has this experience of trauma, loss and separation. Through the embodied action of walking and sensing the places she chose during her walk, she had the space to continue to build on her perception of migration as part of her sense of self, even though she hadn’t experienced it herself. She was able to articulate complicated ideas of stretched connections and relationships to places, people, and ways of being. Brought into conscious thought, one memory provoked by a place in Swansea, makes Farah think about connection to family here and in Iraq, different trajectories and possibilities, and absence.
Concluding reflections
Walking ‘conversations’ used in conjunction with describing place using the senses, taking photos and mind mapping, have provided a beneficial way to explore sometimes difficult ideas around intangible concepts such as belonging and community with these racialised young women. In my experience the method could offer an empathetic and creative way to transcend rigid and preset ways of researching lived migration experiences. Migration experiences are sensed. Using such a method can bring to life often difficult to describe emotions, memories, and relationships to place.
Endnotes
[1] Wylie, J. (2005). A single day’s walking: Narrating self and landscape on the South West Coast Path. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 30 (2): 234–47.
[2] Pseudonyms have been used to retain anonymity for the young research participants.
Author's bio
Jami Abramson is a ESRC funded PhD candidate in Human Geography at Swansea University. Her research entitled “Sensing Wales: conflicting identities and belonging for racialised young women in Wales” aims to explore racialised young people’s experiences with places, particularly in relation to their idea of identity and sense of self.
ORCid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9223-065X
X: @JamiAbramson
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jami-abramson-b10b71242